COQUILLE, Ore. (AP) - Oregon authorities are investigating how a farmer was eaten by his hogs.

Terry Vance Garner, 69, never returned after he set out to feed his animals last Wednesday on his farm near the Oregon coast, the Coos County district attorney said Monday.

A family member found Garner's dentures and pieces of his body in the hog enclosure several hours later, but most of his remains had been consumed, District Attorney Paul Frasier said. Several of the hogs weighed 700 pounds or more.

It's possible Garner had a medical emergency, such as a heart attack, or was knocked over by the animals, then killed and eaten, Frasier said, adding that at least one hog had previously bitten Garner.

The possibility of foul play is being investigated as well.

"For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it's so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities," Frasier told The Register-Guard.

A pathologist was unable to identify a cause or manner of death, the newspaper reported. The remains will be examined by a forensic anthropologist at the University of Oregon.

Terry Garner was "a good-hearted guy" who cared for several huge adult sows and a boar named Teddy, said his brother, Michael Garner, 75, of Myrtle Point.

Piglets were typically sold to local 4-H kids.

"Those animals were his life," Michael Garner said. "He had all kinds of birds, and turkeys that ran all over the place. Everybody knew him."

Michael Garner said one of the large sows bit his brother last year when he accidentally stepped on a piglet.

"He said he was going to kill it, but when I asked him about it later, he said he had changed his mind," the brother said.

Domestic hogs are not typically known to be as aggressive as their feral cousins, but "there is some degree of danger associated with any animal," John Killefer, who heads the Animal and Rangeland Sciences Department at Oregon State University in Corvallis, told the newspaper.

While pigs "are more omnivorous than other farm animals, (such as) cows," Killefer called the case highly unusual.

Most hogs are raised until they reach a market weight of between 250 and 300 pounds, while breeding female pigs rarely weigh more than 400 pounds, Killefer said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Even domesticated pigs can be dangerous, especially around piglets. The mothers can become quite violent if they feel their young are being threatened. My grandpa raised pigs and he never entered their enclosure with out a jab stick. It gave a little electric shock if the pig got to close to him and he felt threatened.

__________________Being the smartest retard here doesn't make me any less retarded.....

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On Wednesday morning, Terry V. Garner, a 70-year-old Oregon farmer, went to feed his animals. Several hours later, when he hadn’t returned, a family member went to look for him and found, on the ground of the hog enclosure, his dentures.

Further investigation of the enclosure by the family member revealed that the hogs, which each weighed about 700 pounds, had nearly completely eaten the farmer, although some body parts were strewn about the enclosure.

Now the Coos County Sheriff’s Office is investigating how Garner “ended up in a position where the hogs were able to consume him.” According to the Sheriff's statement:

There are several scenarios being investigated, including that Mr. Garner had a health event, such as a heart attack, which then put him in a position where the hogs could consume him. Another scenario being investigated is that given the age and health of Mr. Garner, that one or more of the hogs knocked Mr. Garner to the ground, whereupon that hogs killed and consumed him.

The statement adds that family said that at least one of the hogs had previously been aggressive toward the farmer but did not specify how many hogs live on the farm. It also says that police are looking into foul play.

Garner’s remains were examined on Saturday by a pathologist who was unable to determine how the man died. A forensic anthropologist at the University of Oregon will also examine his remains.

Answering the phone at Garner’s home Monday, a man who described himself as a family friend described the tragedy succinctly: “What a way.”

This isn’t the first time hogs have eaten their farmers.

In 2004, a Romanian woman was knocked unconscious and eaten by the pigs on her farm, UPI reported at the time. The news report did not say whether the woman survived, only that the pigs had eaten the woman's ears and half her face. Her husband, sedated, told reporters: "I'll never breed such beasts again."

We eat enough pigs for them to want to eat some of us I suppose. I bet we don't taste as good as bacon though. Seriously though, sorry the farmer was eaten, but surely if the pigs hadn't been hungry they wouldn't just eat a human without any cause or reason?!